When Juliana Martinez-Arends and her husband arrived in the United States from Venezuela in 2017, they slept on a mattress on the floor in a house with 10 other people.
Now, her husband has a flourishing business, she has a job she loves and they’re expecting their third child. The Granger-based family celebrated their good fortune by Juliana joining four other women to take her oath to become a U.S. citizen at the Federal Courthouse in Hammond Friday morning.
Magistrate John Martin, who presided over the ceremony, marveled at the bravery of Martinez-Arends, Erica Martinez, Maria Alavarez, Rosa Garcia and Sendy Siregar Chanthanongsy for leaving Venezuela, Mexico and Indonesia to come here to start their new lives. Among his favorite stories are the ones his family told of coming through Ellis Island, he said.
“I’m sure you have your own unique stories, because the story of America is the story of immigration,” Martin said. “You’re part of a rich tapestry.”
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, himself a naturalized citizen from Guatemala, said he came to the U.S. with his family as a senior in high school. He knew no English and had no friends, but the family had a dream.
“We knew, as you do, that it’s the land of opportunity, and we were in search of the American dream,” Morales said. “I came here with a purpose: My role was to create hope for others, and I’ve done my part for this state.
“Our country is strong because of you.”
Constitutional law professor and attorney Rosalie Levinson also came with a story to share. Her parents arrived in America with her older sister in 1947 after getting liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp and losing most of their family in the Holocaust.
“My parents were fiercely patriotic. My dad had a beautiful voice and was always asked to sing the National Anthem,” she said. “I was born in 1948, the year after they arrived, and they taught to me appreciate the rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution. Now you’ll have the right to vote and freedom of speech.”
In recent years, those freedoms have been demonized, Levinson acknowledged, which is why people can’t take democracy for granted. Antisemitism, for example, has risen 900% in the last several years, she said.
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“Democracy works if we work together,” she said.
Martinez-Arends said when she and her husband left Venezuela, they weren’t necessarily leaving because they were scared; it was more because they wanted better opportunities. For them, getting their citizenship wasn’t terribly difficult.
“There’s a very clear difference in how things work here,” she said. “I think the system works.”
Siregar Chanthanongsy, of South Bend, on the other hand, said she and her family felt a lot of uncertainty the last couple years while working toward her citizenship. But she had a good reason to risk it all.
“We have two good reasons: our twins,” she said, beaming at them.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.